DISABLED workers at a North-East factory threatened with for closure have agreed to take strike action.

Staff at Remploy in Spennymoor, County Durham, are understood to have overwhelmingly backed the national strike ballot.

Also among the 36 Remploy factories facing closure – most by the end of the year – are Gateshead, Newcastle and Ashington.

The Government’s Sayce Review concluded the factories lose a total of £63m a year and the average taxpayer subsidy is £25,000 for each worker, compared with only £2,9000 to support a disabled person in a mainstream job.

Despite negotiations with Remploy, the unions balloted members on strike action – with 79.5 per cent nationally in favour of strike and 87.3 per cent in favour of industrial action, excluding a strike.

It is understood that all 40 staff at the Spennymoor factory backed the strike vote by the GMB and Unite unions.

Remploy worker Ken Stubbs, the GMB Union’s North-East branch secretary, said: “When the funding changes were announced we recommended that the Government should take time to make the process work and it didn’t.

“The Government had no intention of doing things properly and so we’ve got to this.”

A union meeting will be held tomorrow where it will be decided when any action will be taken.

Durham county councillor Ben Ord, the Liberal Democrat member for Spennymoor and Middlestone Moor, said: “It would be very hard for a normal person to get a job and even harder for someone with a disability.”

Helen Goodman, Bishop Auckland’s Labour MP, said: “I’m very sympathetic to the workers.

“The Government is treating them very badly. I can imagine the workers’ frustration.

“It’ll be very difficult for lots of them to find other jobs given the current employment problems.”

Remploy has about 180 workers in the North-East and more than 2,000 nationally.

The company said strikes could deter possible funders.

A spokesman said: “Strike action will do nothing to secure the future jobs of Remploy staff.

“The company continues to consider proposals put forward by the unions as part of the consultation on the proposed closure or transfer of ownership.”

The organisation was also cut by the previous Labour government, which closed 28 factories, including 350 workers in Stockton, Hartlepool and York.